Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 699 is my conversation with Mick Guthrie, the Australian founder of CAST Fishing Co. Mick walked away from a fifteen-year civil construction career, turned an online fishing magazine into a full apparel and tackle brand, and now runs remote multi-day boat trips to the outer edge of the Great Barrier Reef. We talk about why being good at something is not a reason to keep doing it, how CAST grew from real stories instead of sponsorships, and how an Australian brand cracked American bass fishing.
Listen now: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · YouTube · Press play in the player above to watch.
Mick Guthrie is the Australian founder of CAST Fishing Co., a fishing brand based in Queensland that began as an online magazine and grew into apparel, film series, and a full tackle line. He fished from age four, studied civil engineering, and spent roughly fifteen years managing civil construction projects before walking away to build CAST. The company now sells through tackle stores across Australia and expanded into the United States about two years before this conversation, gaining most of its early American traction in bass fishing.
CAST Fishing Co. is an Australian fishing brand Mick Guthrie founded that started as a digital magazine called CAST Magazine, which ran around twenty issues focused on real fishermen telling real stories rather than selling gear. Reader demand for shirts and hats grew it into apparel, then film series such as Goals and Home Turf, and eventually into its own tackle and lures. It is stocked in dozens of Australian tackle stores and has co-owners in the United States, including Ryan Hanks.
Mick spent about fifteen years in civil construction management, building roads, bridges, tunnels, and subdivisions, and he was good at it. He explains in the episode that he reached a point where the work only took from him instead of giving back, where he was losing sleep over other people's money and arguing with people he would never invite to a barbecue. His takeaway was that being good at something is not a reason to keep doing it if it has no purpose for you.
Mick fishes the Carpentaria region and the remote outer edge of the Great Barrier Reef off Queensland, including Cape York and the Torres Strait. He describes driving small center-console boats for two days, running offshore to sand cays on the continental shelf, and camping for several nights with world-class fishing for giant coral trout, GTs, dogtooth tuna, marlin, sailfish, and Spanish mackerel, plus fly fishing for permit, triggerfish, and milkfish on largely untouched flats.
Mick says it happened almost by accident. He and his partner Ben traveled to Florida around 2019 for ICAST, toured both coasts for about two weeks, and noticed how many anglers were fishing live bait for the same species he targets with lures back home. CAST entered the US about two years before this episode and found its strongest early traction in bass fishing, one of the hardest and most particular markets to crack.
Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 699 with Mick Guthrie is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and iHeartRadio. The video version is embedded at the top of this page.
Mick reached out through a mutual friend, and what hooked me was not the brand. It was the way he described leaving a successful construction career because it had stopped giving him anything back. I have a lot of respect for people who are good at something, walk away from it anyway, and rebuild around what actually feeds them. Mick did that, then turned a magazine idea from his wife into CAST Fishing Co., and now he is fishing parts of Australia most of us will never see. I wanted him to walk me through the whole arc in his own words.
Press play in the YouTube player at the top of this page to hear the full story.
Mick was good at construction management — roads, bridges, tunnels, subdivisions. He says the realization that changed everything was simple: just because you are good at something does not mean you should be doing it. The work had stopped being a challenge and started being a source of stress, conflict, and lost sleep over other people's money. He describes the exact light-bulb moment when he asked himself what he was doing. It is the kind of honest career reckoning a lot of listeners will recognize. Hear how he tells it in the episode.
The origin story is not what you would expect from a tackle company. Mick's wife suggested an online magazine, and he sat on the idea for months before launching CAST Magazine for iPad and iPhone. It ran about twenty issues, and the whole flavor was real fishermen telling real stories — nothing sponsored, nothing about selling gear. Readers started asking where they could buy a shirt or a hat, and that demand built the brand from the ground up. Listen to how a magazine became apparel, film series, and eventually tackle.
This is the section I keep replaying. Mick describes driving small center-console boats two days north, loading them with fuel, food, and water, then running offshore to sand cays on the continental shelf where the reef drops into nothing. He camps for five nights with world-class fishing in his front yard — giant coral trout he calls dino trout, GTs, dogtooth tuna, marlin, and fly targets like permit and triggerfish on flats that see almost no pressure. He also gets honest about what nearly kills those trips. Watch the YouTube player above for the full breakdown.
Mick says it happened by accident. He and his partner Ben came to Florida around 2019 for ICAST, toured both coasts, and could not understand why so many anglers were soaking live bait for the same species he chases with lures back home. CAST entered the US about two years before our conversation and found its strongest traction in bass fishing — one of the most particular, secretive markets in the country. How that happened is a small-business story worth hearing. Listen to that part of the episode.
Listen to the full conversation: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · or watch in the YouTube player at the top of this page.
The day after talking to Mick, the line I could not shake was that being good at something is not a reason to keep doing it. He had every reason to stay in construction and chose purpose instead, and the brand he built came from telling real stories rather than chasing sponsors.
What I admire most is that CAST grew because people wanted to support what Mick was actually doing on the water. The adventure came first, the business followed. That order matters.
Press play in the player above, or grab Episode 699 on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
The Tom Rowland Podcast brings you long-form conversations with the most accomplished anglers, hunters, conservationists, and outdoor professionals in the game. Listen to every full-length Tom Rowland Podcast interview.
Mick Guthrie · CAST Fishing Co. · CAST Magazine · Ryan Hanks · Ben · Tyler · Great Barrier Reef · Gulf of Carpentaria · Cape York · Torres Strait · Brisbane, Queensland · ICAST
Mick Guthrie is the Australian founder of CAST Fishing Co., a Queensland-based fishing brand that began as the digital publication CAST Magazine and grew into apparel, film series, and a full tackle line. A lifelong angler who started fishing at age four, he studied civil engineering and spent roughly fifteen years managing civil construction projects before leaving to build CAST around purpose rather than profit. He is known for remote multi-day adventures on the outer Great Barrier Reef and for expanding CAST into the United States, where the brand has found strong early traction in bass fishing.
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